What Late Night Patrols Lead To
by Willow Elijah
Summary: Olivia and Remus are chosen as the prefects who has to patrol the corridors at night. Remus/OC
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

I wake up in my Hogwarts dorm room on an early Saturday morning. I look out the window and see that it is still dark outside. None of my other dorm mates are awake, so I decide to go for a walk through the castle. This is my favourite activity to do whenever I have time to spare. There is something magical about the Hogwarts castle... Well there are a lot of magical things about the Hogwarts castle. But there is just something about it that screams home, you can't explain it, you can try, but you won't succeed. There isn't really a word for it. It's just so alive, it's like it has a mind of its own.

Hogwarts is legitimately my favourite place in the world, and as I walk through the corridors I am entirely alone, but I don't feel it. I don't feel alone. The castle is there with me, feels what I feel.

I walk up all the staircases and through all the corridors, until I reach the astronomy tower, and as I take the final steps of the staircase up to the tower I am hit by the cold breeze of a December morning. It is still early December and the first snow is yet to come. I walk up to the railing where I can see the grounds and is once again hit by the beauty of it. There is a full moon and not a cloud in sight.

I think back to the end of last year, it was one of those warm days in July, me and a couple of people were sitting in this exact spot talking about the fun stuff we were doing that summer, and our hopes for what's to come next year. I smile at the memory as I walk the long way back to the great hall.

When I reach the hall some students are up, but it's quite calm in there, I sit down at the Gryffindor table. The morning sun is seeping through the windows; it's about 9 o'clock now.

"Where have you been?" Lily asks with a smile. Lily is one of my fellow dorm mates. She is brilliant. She is kind and intelligent and, to be blunt: I adore her.

"Just had a walk through the castle" I say. "Remember last year when we were up in the astronomy tower –"

"Yeees! That was a good day." She interrupts.

We smile at the memory.

"You're a bit strange," she says in a light manner. "Are you on prefect duties tonight?"

"Yeah I am. I'm with Remus Lupin now." Lily and I have been patrolling together for most of the year but the groups have changed now. I have to admit I am bit nervous because I don't know Remus that well and I am not so comfortable with boys.

"Oh, well, Remus is alright." She says with a smile.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I meet up with Remus at 9 p.m. to start our patrolling. We meet up by the main Hogwarts entrance.

"I saw you this morning," Is the first thing he blurts out. "In the astronomy tower, was that you?"

"Yes, that was I" I give him a confused look.

"I was out on the grounds." He explains while we walk.

"Oh, okay … why were you out on the grounds at 8 a.m.?" I say.

"Well … it was 8.30 actually…"

I just look at him as if to say that doesn't do as an explanation and that I want more information.

"Well, what were you doing in the astronomy tower?" He says in a confronting manner, and I can tell he is nervous about me questioning him.

"I was just walking around, I like to walk around." Now it's my turn to be defensive.

"Well, I like to walk around too." Remus says defensively. The discussion is quite heated now.

"_Well," _I start, because he is saying well a lot. "Good thing that's sort of what we are going to do together from now on."

Remus smiles at that, and it is quiet for a while. We are now on the second floor and the castle is pretty dead at this time. The torches light up the walls of stone. I realise that I have completely forgotten about my nervousness about having to socialize with a strange boy and I am actually quite comfortable. Not completely, but more than I normally would be.

"I seriously need to know why you were roaming the grounds all alone in the dark. Was it for another famous Marauder prank, or what?" I finally say amusedly.

Remus sighs; unhappy we haven't dropped the topic. "Possibly..."

"That's vague." I state. "Or were you admiring the full moon? It's beautiful, I know."

He laughs. "Yes … It is … quite beautiful…"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

In potions class on Monday morning I am paired up with James. We are going to make a Living Death potion and James is being quite annoying because he isn't paying much attention to the potion and more to Sirius, sharing looks with him, laughing about who knows what. Sirius is paired up with Remus and they are sat in the front of the class. You know when you learn a new thing and then you can't help but see that thing all the time and everywhere you go in your everyday life? That's what it's like with Remus. I have learned a new Remus and now I can't help but see Remus all the time and everywhere I go. I have been watching Remus for basically this whole class. I've noticed he has a lot of scars and looks tired. I have also noticed that he is a bit attractive, hence me looking at him for this whole class. I've tried to be cool about it though, but I don't know if I have succeeded in it. I try to shift between intense staring at him and complete disregard of him; I can't do just one of them.

And now he's here. Speaking to James. I look up at him.

"Hey Olivia." He says cheerily. "Been roaming around the astronomy tower, all alone in the dark, anything lately?" Remus says, smiling.

"No actually." I grin. "How about you? Taken your daily stroll though the Hogwarts grounds in the dark, while admiring the moon?"

"Nah… It's not actually a daily thing you know. I do other things in the morning as well." He states.

"Like what?" I counter.

"Well, I'll tell you about this one time, I actually slept." He says sarcastically.

"What!" I fake a gasp. "Sleep? I've never heard of this preposterous phenomenon!" I say with the sarcasm level of a thousand.

We laugh and James simply looks at us, half amused, half surprised. "What's this all about?" He gestures between us.

"Oh you know James, it's just between prefects." Remus says with a self-assured voice.

James narrows his eyes at him.

For the rest of the class James pays a lot more attention to our potion and in me as well it seems. It's like he's suddenly found more interest in me. Like he sees me with a slightly new light, as if I am not just some girl anymore. One of his own Marauders has accepted me, which means I am not just anyone anymore. Or maybe I am reading too much into this? Probably.


	4. Chapter 4

**Authors note:**

A horizontal line indicates a time jump.

**Chapter 4**

I am feeling tired as I walk through the door back into Gryffindor tower. I have finally had some dinner, it's been a long day, and I just want to relax. I jump into the sofa next to Alice and Stephanie. I cross my legs underneath me.

"2 hours potions, 2 hours astronomy and oh yes, 2 hours history of magic." I practically sigh that whole sentence as I put my head on the arm of the sofa, closing my eyes.

Alice says something and I don't pay much attention to exactly what. I open my eyes and scan the common room and as my eyes fleet past the entrance I see Remus and the rest of the Marauders enter. I make a weird sound and look away quickly.

"You seem a bit absent." Alice says.

"Yeah that's me, I'm absent minded."

* * *

I have got to stop this. I can't let this take over my life. All of the sudden it's like I can't think about much else but him. I've started to memorize the times I will see him. For example, if I hang around that corridor at that time I will usually see him walk past. Or if I hang around a bit after astronomy class, (because the marauders are a bit slow and they are usually the last ones out) that means I can walk all the way to the great hall behind them, watching him and proceeding to look at him (although trying not to) during lunch.

Right now though, I have just gotten out of transfiguration and we have some free time before lunch. I walk with Katie and Alice down to the lake. It is very cold outside but we don't care. Katie has got her camera and we are taking photos and being silly.

Later that night while patrolling Remus and I are walking around a deserted corridor. I am not even sure what this corridor leads to, I don't recognize ever being here before... Truth be told, we're kind of lost, but we don't want to say it out loud, as if doing so would make it truer.

"Look," Remus suddenly says in a mesmerized tone. Breaking up my daydreaming.

I follow his gaze and look out a window. It is snowing, and really heavily for that matter.

"It's beautiful." I say, and it comes out much quieter than I meant it to, a whisper.

We stand there for a while, looking out the window before we are interrupted by the sound of people running. It is coming closer and we turn around to see the rest of the Marauders as they appear around the corner.

"It's snowing!" One says. "We've been looking all over for you," another states. They are all panting.

No one says anything.

"It's snowing" Sirius says once again.

"I noticed." Remus replies.

"Hello?" James says exasperatedly. "Snowball fight." He adds as if this is as obvious as the sky.

"I'm on prefect duties!" Says Remus and then he glances at me.

"Well, then she can come too." Says James.

Remus shrugs. They all smile and start running. I'm guessing this is cue for me to start running along, so I do. We run for a bit until we slow down to a slow pace and they take out a piece of parchment.

"Okay, Filch is all the way over there." James says.

"But Mrs Norris is right there." Remus counters.

I am dying to know what the hell they are talking about, and what is up with that parchment. I am also a bit scared of getting caught, which funnily enough, didn't cross my mind before I got into all of this.

They start running again. I run too.

* * *

As we open the gate and walk out across the grounds Sirius asks:

"Who is this girl anyway and why did we invite her?"

"Why not." James says

"I'm just saying, we don't know her." Sirius is talking as if I'm not even here.

"I know her." James says while putting his arm around me. I'm feeling a little awkward right now I have to say. "It's … what is your name?" James asks.

"Olivia." Remus and I say at the same time.

"Yeah, and Remus knows her. She's cool." James states in an assuring voice.

I'm wondering where he got all this confidence in me. He seems so assured that I am cool when we haven't really talked that much, we don't really know each other that well.

We start walking again and Remus walks by me.

"Hey." He says suddenly as he bends over.

And then snow… In my face… Great. I quickly get a snowball to throw in his face but I miss. I throw another one, which also misses. The snow is perfect for making snowballs.

"Hey! Have you started already?" James yells while he picks up a snowball to throw at Remus, getting revenge for me. The fight warms up a bit and we quickly form teams. It's Remus, Peter and I against Sirius and James. I get more into it. I get some good hits in on Sirius, who proceeds to chasing me and wrestling me down throwing snowballs at me and then he gives it up and start shuffling snow at me. We are all laughing and I am laughing so hard I can't even defend myself. Then, Sirius makes the big mistake of looking away; I take my chance, gather a snowball and when he looks back, I simply press it against his face. I meet Remus' eyes and he looks at me with amusement, I stay like that for a split second. Then I run.

* * *

When we get inside I am so unbelievably cold. There is snow falling down my neck and basically everywhere. I think that we are heading up for Gryffindor tower. I am longing for my cosy warm bed, but at the end of a corridor where we are supposed to turn right to get to my cosy warm bed, we, instead, turn left heading for… the dungeons? When I ask where we are going, the only response I get is "We need hot chocolate." I decide to simply wait and see what happens. I have come to the realisation that the Marauders like to be mysterious and dramatic and I gather it is probably best to let them have their fun.

We walk down the stairs and end up in front of a painting of a bowl of fruit. They tickle the pear located in the fruit bowl. Weird. To my surprise, a secret passage opens. I am very interested to know how they stumbled upon this at first. We walk into a kitchen with loads of house elves running around. It's amazing and I can't help but wonder of all the other secrets of Hogwarts, and of how many of them the marauders know of.

"We would like some hot chocolate, please." Says James.

"Right away!" says one of the house elves, and indeed right away we have our hot chocolate. It turns out that it's just what I need right now. It doesn't just warm my throat and stomach; it warms my whole body. The warmth streams through every cell of my body like a flood. The whole way to my fingertips and I am cold no longer. I close my eyes for a second.

"How is it?" Remus says as if he already knows the answer.

I open my eyes and find his. "Amazing."

* * *

The common room is empty and dark except for the fireplace where a fire is burning. We all say goodnight and they walk up to their dormitories. I hang around for a bit, not quite ready to let go of this day, no quite ready for it to end. I walk up to the fireplace and warm my hands over it. The only sound is the crackling from the burning wood and the whistling wind from outside.

"Did you have fun?" I hear Remus voice. I didn't realize he never went upstairs. He walks up to me.

"I loved it. It was fun breaking the rules, I should do it more often." I say with a smile.

"I'm glad we have such a good influence on you." He says sarcastically.

We smile and stand like that for a while. It's getting a little awkward.

"I should go to bed." I say.

"Yeah." He responds.

No one moves.

"Okay." I start moving.

"Yeah okay."

We both walk upstairs.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

I get under the warm covers and fall asleep listening to the wind outside.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

"Where were you all of last night?" Lily says curiously "Patrolling doesn't usually last for that long."

"Um … it was … I was … Snowball fight."

"Wait, wha-"

"I had a snowball fight with James and all of them." I say snorting.

Lily laughs "What! Olivia, I'm pretty sure that's not allowed at that hour."

We laugh.

"But like … how did that happen?"

* * *

Later at breakfast there is an atmosphere of excitement in the great hall. Everyone is excited about the snow, but nobody knows its old news for some of the students. The Marauders all join me and it's like we have a shared secret, a connection. As if we know something no one else in that room does. We know what happened last night. We've already had our fun. Suddenly I get the aura, which the Marauders have; it's like you can't touch them, they are a closed group. They have all of these experiences; just them and they don't let anyone else be part of it. That's what locks them away from the rest of Hogwarts. They have their own little secret club with their own little secrets. Last night, they let me be a part of that; I will never forget it and I will never take it for granted.

* * *

The following week I continue to grow closer and closer to them. I spend more time with them in class, during break, during lunch and in the common room at night. I get a much more comfortable with them as well. They let me in more and more and it's really confusing, sometimes I can be part of their secret club with their own little secrets and sometimes not and I have to be careful so that I don't step over the line and they start pushing me away.

I continue my patrols with Remus, which are on most nights. It means I can look at him a lot. I like to look at the way he walks, kind of as if he doesn't really know where he is going. I like to look at his hair, the way it falls perfectly around his face. And also, I can look at him without it being weird because I am talking to him, so it's okay to look. We don't really talk that much about things like transfiguration essays and more about things like if we think that muggles are really just wizards who have given up on magic and pretend not to know about it. But then we came to the conclusion that no one would ever give up on magic, that's absurd.

I start to realise that I have never been so open with someone about my thoughts. I have never felt so comfortable sharing them with anyone. I am not the type of person who gets close to anyone; I've never really grown close to anyone outside my family in the way I am growing close to Remus. We can talk about real things; interesting things and I find myself looking forward to those late night conversations more than anything. One night we didn't even stop talking when we got back to the deserted common room. Without even thinking about it we sat down and continued talking until 4 a.m. The next day was a long one because of it, although I never regretted it. The way he smiled at me tiredly in in class and I smiled back equally as tiredly without a word, we didn't need to say anything.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

I was sitting next to Alice, Lily and Katie laughing while playing a game of exploding snap. I see Remus walking by, heading towards the Marauders sitting by the fireplace. I watch him as he walks by and right when he passes by I look down again.

"Ha! That's funny, you were looking at him and then right when you looked away he looked at you. Guess you missed each other." Alice then says bluntly.

I look up at her "Yeah that's funny" I say with a stifled laugh. I look down at my cards awkwardly. **BAM **one of her cards explode and we all laugh.

"Hi Evans." James then says with confidence, running a hand through his hair, trying to make it messier. An activity he is very fond of doing whenever he is around Lily.

"Potter." Lily says sounding quite annoyed already.

"You know … we are all having a Christmas party here on Saturday, and you're invited. You are all invited." He adds looking around at the rest of us.

"Okay." Lily says plainly, as if she doesn't really care.

"Yeah, sure, we'll be there." We all mumble in response, glancing at Lily who is looking through her cards nonchalantly as if he isn't even there.

"Okay, cool." James says again, running a hand through his hair once again, not as confident as when he came here.

"Smooth, James" I hold my hand up as if to give a high five to him but he ignores the hand. "Shut up" he says, clearly annoyed. I laugh and look over at Sirius who is giving me the thumbs up, and Remus who is smiling at me. I smile back.

While lying in bed that night I ponder over the coming Saturday. I don't really enjoy parties, at least not the few ones I've been to. I don't like to be around drunken people and I don't drink myself. It's really awkward being the sober one at a party, I just feel very distant from everyone else.

* * *

The next morning in the great hall I ask Remus if he is looking forward to the party.

"I'm not much for parties. It's just awkward being around loads of drunk people. And I've never even had a drink in my whole life … But I'm acting excited for these guys." He adds quickly as the rest of the Marauders approach us.

"Excited for tonight?" Sirius says smugly.

"Couldn't be more excited. Woohoo!" Remus says attempting to sound cheery.

"We don't need your charity Remus. Stop acting excited, we know you're not." James says matter of factly.

Remus sighs. I can't help but feel a little amused by his hopelessness. James and Sirius continue their planning for tonight and it's a little crazy. They are going to sneak into Hogsmeade and get some butterbeer and the sorts. The party is going to be held on a location of which I am not entirely sure, somewhere on the seventh floor. All of Gryffindor is invited, some Hufflepuffs and some Ravenclaws. I doubt that any Slytherins are invited.

* * *

Later in the night Remus and I head toward the seventh floor, we've just been patrolling the corridors, which we know it's pointless, many students sneak out soon. The seventh floor is big, as you can imagine, but Remus seems to know where we are going. A few meters ahead I can see Sirius standing by himself, we walk and greet him.

"Hello prefects, I am glad you are here, we are going to need someone to keep up the order tonight." He says, grinning.

I fill with annoyance. I don't know about Remus but I don't feel like running around all night trying to keep everyone sorted.

Sirius starts walking away, he then turns and walks back and then he turns once again. I am astounded when I realise there is a hidden door appearing before us.

"No way!" I say and they both smile at me knowingly. A smile erupts on my face naturally.

"Welcome" Remus says as he opens the door for me and I am in loss for words as I walk inside and am hit by loud music, people yelling and see a big room full of people dancing, laughing and having a good time. I guess people did find it, despite my doubts. Of course they had Sirius' help making the door appear.

We walk further inside. This place has got everything a party should have. Tables, full with the best wizarding snacks and alcoholic drinks. The place is covered in Christmas decorations but it's not too much, just enough actually. They've got comfy chairs and couches where people are sitting, playing drinking games and such. I watch James who is standing on a chair pouring drinks for people. He catches sight of Lily and immediately drops what he is doing to try and get her attention. Sirius takes over instead, having joined the party. I laugh and see that Remus is smiling at me.

"Amazing…" I say, grinning.

I go up to the table to get some butterbeer.

"Please, let me." Sirius yells while he dances towards me and pours me some of it.

"Thanks."

I look over to find Remus again when I see that Katie is talking with him. She is noticeably drunk and quite obviously trying to flirt with him. Remus is smiling at her and nodding politely with the conversation. It stings a bit. He catches my eye and looks at me searchingly and I walk away.

I sit down on one of the comfortable couches in a corner that is a bit quieter. I watch my happy, drunk friends play games and I wonder how long I will last here. Lily sits down with a butterbeer in her hand and I try to keep a conversation with her. It's mostly small talk and it dies almost immediately. I have too much on my mind to focus, I'm feeling a bit to distant and absent minded. We sit quietly watching everyone else have fun.

* * *

Approximately 20 minutes pass and Lily and I have finally got a conversation going when Remus suddenly, almost jumps, into the spot next to me and I, in return, almost jump in shock at his sudden appearance.

"JAMES GOT ME TO TAKE SHOTS" he yells, a bit to loudly than he needs to and a bit to closely for my comfort zone. He's obviously drunk. I feel a little sorry for him. James has probably pressured him into doing it and Remus, in his lack of assertiveness, couldn't say no.

"I can see that." I say, amused. I'm not very comfortable around drunken people, but it's fine while it's my friends. And seeing Remus drunk, I have to admit, is quite amusing.

"DO YOU THINK THAT JAMES IS HOT?"

I am a bit taken back by the question. I open my mouth to respond but he interrupts.

"You do, everyone does." He says in a melancholy tone.

"Last week in defence against the arts dark … when he he he stupefied Malfoy … you probably thought he was pretty hot then didn't you, you did, didn't you?" He stumbles out.

"You're pretty." He says, again before I have time to answer. He puts his head down on the backrest and zones out for a bit.

"Thank you." I say.

He looks at the roof for a while. And then he looks me straight in the eye.

"I'm sorry I'm so awkward." He says and he has genuine sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm so awkward too." I say. I don't know if my eyes reflect it, but I match his genuine sadness.

We stay like that for a bit, until he starts to mess up his hair.

"James has messy hair. I can have messy hair too." He says.

I reach out and fix his hair the way it normally is.

"That's how I like it." I say with a smile of which he returns.

* * *

**James' POV**

"Finally! How did that happen?" says Sirius.

"Oh, you know, I used magic." I answer.

"What! No, not even you would go that far."

"Fine … It was the magic of alcohol." I admit.

"Merlin, I'm happy he finally plucked up the courage, or, more correctly, drank up the courage. Have you seen the way he's been looking at her lately? Sometimes _I _have to tell _him_ to concentrate on what the teacher is saying! Me! Do you get how absurd that is?" Sirius says forcefully.

"And how he always makes every conversation about her." I add.

"And how he practically crawls out of his skin out of excitement every time they are going to patrol." Peter has now joined the conversation.

"I'm very delighted for them, they are both so reserved, it's nice to see them being able to be close with each other." Lily has now, to my delight, also joined the conversation.

**Olivia's POV**

I am so close to Remus right now and he is smiling goofily at me. I want us to stay this way. I don't want him any further away from me. I take my eyes away from him and notice how our friends are watching us from a couple of meters away. They are all smiling and I wonder how long they've been watching us kissing.


End file.
